Services

Intramuscular Stimulation

What is IMS?

Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) is a total system for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain conditions occurring in the musculoskeletal system—when there is no obvious sign of injury or inflammation. These conditions can include: neck and back pain, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, piriformis syndrome, jumper’s knee, runner’s knee and heel pain amongst many others.

Pain with no obvious or recent injury is often caused by a malfunction in the pain sensory system, and is called Radiculopathic Pain or Neuropathy. This type of pain occurs when a nerve link to a part of the body malfunctions, and that area becomes highly irritable and extremely sensitive.

How can IMS help?

IMS treats neuropathy using acupuncture needles to target those shortened muscles that are the root cause of the chronic pain.

IMS treatment involves the dry needling of affected areas of the body (i.e. without injecting any substance). The needles sites can be at the epicenter of taut, tender muscle bands, or they can be near the spine where the nerve root may become irritated and supersensitive.

IMS relies heavily on a through physical examination of the patient by a practitioner trained to recognize the physical signs of neuropathic pain. This physical examination is indispensable since chronic pain is often neurological as opposed to structural.

To learn more about IMS, please visit the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Pain’s website at www.istop.org or contact us at info@coresolutionsphysiotherapy.com.